Harry Potter and the IMTF
by PipeLad
Summary: Harry Potter has left England behind, and joined the International Magical Task Force, a highly militarized group of international wizards dedicated to rooting out and destroying renegade wizards and magical creatures, but those who are deemed dangerous and uncontrollable. No slash. Probably no pairing at all. M for language and violence that is probably to come. Post-War/Voldemort
1. Chapter 1

I'm back y'all. Expect a new chapter of the Night is Long Rewrite soon, not so sure about when the next Necromancer's Tale is coming, but possibly soon depending on feedback.

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Climbing the rocky and craggy ridge Harry James Potter was very careful to move slowly and covertly. Stealth was key for this mission, and Harry understood that. It was highly unlikely that he could be seen or detected, he had a whole slew of concealment devices and precautions with him. Plus the acrid smoke hanging and lazily drifting through the air would also hide him from any prying eyes.

This was a simple reconnaissance mission, the same sort that he had performed dozens of in the past.

Reaching a smaller ledge that was still a good bit short of the ridge top Harry paused a moment.

Slinging his standard issue combat rifle off of his back and onto a rock Harry removed his also standard issue canteen and took a sip of water while he reflected on his life. He was quite far from home, and that suited him just fine. He was currently somewhere in the hills and mountains of Afghanistan, deployed and acting as a scout for the International Magical Task Force which had been formed shortly after his defeat of Voldemort.

The I.M.T.F. was a group of the most powerful and resourceful wizards and magical creatures gathered from all around the world, and its purpose was to maintain peace and security on a global level, at least when concerned with out of control or renegade wizards.

And that was exactly what Harry was currently scouting out, the supposed home base of a renegade wizard. Setting down his canteen and pulling out a piece of parchment Harry glanced around. It would not do to be caught unawares during such a simple mission.

The piece of parchment was vaguely similar to the Marauders Map from Harry's past, but it only showed Harry himself, and any members of his team, if he had had any teammates for that mission. It was specially enchanted and very carefully created, it had general information about the area he was going to be going into, and also had his mission parameters.

After making sure he was on course Harry put away the parchment, it was time to start climbing again. Patting his rifle as he slung it up to his back once more Harry appreciated it. It was a standard issue combat rifle for the American Army. It had been magically enhanced in various ways, and Harry preferred to use the rifle when it was possible, in order to save his magical energy for more important threats or targets.

Harry slowly and carefully beginning to ascend the craggy rocks once more Harry had a bad feeling about this mission. The acrid smoke that still hung around had a slight hint of festering odor to it, which was sometimes associated with Necromantic magic.

Steadily and also stealthily making his way to the very top of the ridge Harry peeked over, and with just a moment's observation had his fears confirmed.

The small village that he was overlooking was aflame, with the same black smoke that was hanging around the ridge churning out of the smoldering ruins that was once the village.

Bringing the rifle up to his shoulder and looking down the basic scope that was mounted on top of it Harry scanned the area below him.

He could pretty much only see the thick clouds of black smoke roiling and coiling out of the buildings, but every so often Harry caught a glimpse of shambling figures wandering throughout the remains of the village.

After a few minutes of careful observation through the scope Harry could comfortably say that the village was completely destroyed, with no living survivors at all. The figures that Harry could see wandering and shuffling around were without a doubt Inferi of some sort. The heavy scent of festering flesh was thick in the air on top of the ridge, reeking of Necromantic magic.

The renegade wizard must have done this, and judging by the thick scent of rot, and the still smoldering remains of the village it had not been terribly long ago. The wizard was probably still in the area. Harry needed to call this in to the I.M.T.F. and fast.

Scanning the area below once more and the area around him on the ridge top Harry reached to a small pouch attached to his belt and retrieved the small communication crystal inside.

Running his thumb over the surface of the crystal while sending a small pulse of magic the crystal hummed to life.

"Lonewolf, Lonewolf this is Home Base. Come in Lonewolf." The crystal had activated and patched him through to one of the call dispatchers at Home Base. A warning would have immediately went up at base when he activated his crystal, and this was the response.

"Home Base this is Lonewolf. I'm at Checkpoint Bravo. Primary Target was in the area, and recently. Village has been burned, villagers have been turned to Inferi. I'm awaiting additional orders or commands."

"Inferi? You are sure?" Came the crackling response, the distance made the basic communication crystals slightly staticky sometimes. It sounded similar to a muggle radio with slight interference.

"Affirmative, sir. No doubt about it." Harry was sure that the figures were Inferi, he would recognize them anywhere, he had become quite used to them during his three years with the I.M.T.F.

"Stay at your current position, Lonewolf. Squad #3 is being deployed as we speak, new orders are as follows: Secure and contain the village, and destroy any Inferi found. That is all."

"Secure and Contain, copy that, Home Base."

Staying at his ridge top vantage point as he had been ordered Harry kept a close watch through his scope. He would wait until Squad #3 arrived and then they would clear out the village.

Harry had never really been assigned a squad to work with, as per his request. He had only really ever worked as a team with Ron and Hermione, both of them had been on the I.M.T.F. with Harry. And they had been the perfect team, always working together perfectly like a well oiled machine. That was they had worked perfectly up until a year ago, the mission in the Amazon rainforest.

He had lost his two closest and oldest friends during that mission, and the culprit had gone uncaught as well. Shaking his head clear of those thoughts Harry sighed. Now was not the time for those thoughts, he could not afford to be distracted during this new mission, no matter how simple it seemed.

Ever since that mission Harry had worked mostly solo, and had thus earned the nickname Lonewolf. He was silent and deadly as a wolf stalking its prey, and he had no squad or teammates with him. It was how Harry preferred to operate.

Despite his preference of being alone now, Harry was not adverse to working in junction with a squad or team, especially when it would make success easier or less costly.

Looking towards the horizon Harry, with his magically enhanced goggles that were issued for all desert missions, could see the magical tags that marked the nine approaching shimmers as Squad #3 of the I.M.T.F.

As the squad neared the ridge top they deactivated their cloaking spells attached to the brooms, and touched down gently.

"Greetings, Sergeant Willis." Harry greeted the commanding officer of the squad.

"Nice to see you again, Sergeant Potter." Harry had received the promotion to Sergeant a few months earlier, and while the position usually came with a squad to lead Harry did not have a squad, as per his request.

Sergeant Willis and Harry had worked together a few months earlier, on a very delicate mission in London, where Harry had been attached to the squad temporarily in order to be the local expert and guide.

"Did H.B. brief you on the mission?"

"Sure did. Secure and Contain. Simple enough for me and my boys."

Harry nodded, and responded, "Let's get to work then, huh?"

Sergeant Willis nodded and began to bark out orders, "Ozzy! Rex! You two stay up here, cover the exit road. We don't need any of these Inferi escaping. Michael, Puck! You two do your joint spell routine to clear the air of that awful smoke, also put out any of the larger fires we come across."

The soldiers of Squad #3 broke into the groups that they were assigned, as their Sergeant continued to bark out the last of his orders.

"The rest of you will come with Sergeant Potter and I, we will be clearing the village in a sweep from East to West. Ozzy and Rex you two better cover that road. Rifles and wands at the ready, everybody. This might get bloody."

Scrambling to follow orders and do their last minute preparations or personal rituals the soldiers were soon ready.

With the two soldiers staying up on the ridge with their rifles at the ready the rest of the group carefully but quickly traversed the ridge that led down to the village. It was much easier going down than coming up, and the group made short work of it.

The thick smoke was choking, and by the time the group was at the bottom they barely even catch a glimpse of the two soldiers on top of the ridge. Almost as soon as they reached the bottom the two soldiers, Michael and Puck, were waving their wands in symmetrical gestures, and the smoke was beginning to clear, first from the area around them, and soon from the rest of the village.

With the smoke gone the group fanned out into a spear point formation and began to search through the village. They faced little resistance and the mission seemed like it would be rather easy to complete. All of the Inferi that the group came across were dispatched of, either with spell or shell.

Half of the village had been cleared when things started to seem a bit awry to Harry. The vague inkling that the mission would turn sour had not left Harry, and had only gotten stronger as they progressed without incident or injury.

As they progressed somewhat slowly, but steadily, through the small village Harry had been on his guard. As he used his rifle to gun down Inferi as they came across them every so often he would think he saw a shadow moving impossibly fast, out of the corner of his eye.

This set Harry on high alert, the shadow was black as night and should not have been there under the bright sun. It was also moving incredibly fast. It set Harry on edge slightly, after all only very few creatures or powerful wizards had control over shadows to such an extent, and often times these creatures or wizards were very unsavory types.

Taking a quick respite from clearing the village of Inferi and pulling Sergeant Willis aside Harry voiced his fears.

"I've been seeing a shadow, impossibly fast, unnaturally dark. Always out of the corner of my eye, and never for longer than a split second."

"I've seen it too, Potter. Sets me on edge a bit. Plan of action?" This was, after all, originally Harry's mission, and it seemed that Sergeant Willis would defer to Harry for judgement calls, at least for now.

"Caution. We must take extreme caution, but I do not want to slow down. Warn the men to be on high alert, and get in contact with Home Base. Give them an update and our status, tell them something odd might be happening, but that we do not need reinforcements as of yet."

Sergeant Willis nodded, and once more began to bark out to his men, "High alert, troops! Watch out for something in the shadows, we might be in more danger than we realize, but keep steady pace with the original mission. We're almost done."

Relaying the new information to the two troops on top of the ridge and speaking with Home Base both Sergeant Willis and Harry thought that they were taking an appropriate course of action.

Still, neither liked the situation they were in all that much. The Necromantic magic and possible shadow manipulation were not traits or abilities that were known to be possessed by the renegade wizard they were originally tracking. The renegade wizard that Harry's original mission was to scout out had simply been a wizard who had been giving the local law enforcement problems, and was certainly not a powerful Necromancer.

Necromancy and Shadow manipulation were, however, closely associated with certain species of magical creatures, such as vampires. That would not be good for the squad to deal with, but would not be impossible to deal with should a vampire show up.

The group of soldiers moved steadily forward, their sensors not picking anything up except for the Inferi and the two soldiers on the ridge top. Ozzy and Rex had kept providing cover fire from above, picking off any Inferi that looked like they were wandering away from the village. They had kept in contact, with the communication crystals, and had been giving updates to their sergeant periodically.

The group was on the last row of huts and houses in the village when everything went spectacularly wrong. The very last Inferi had been gunned down by the group, and that was when the real chaos started.

With 8 soldiers on the ground counting both Sergeant Willis and Potter and two above on the ridge top they were a rather formidable fighting force.

Squad #3 had just come to the last row of houses when they took their first casualty. One of the two soldiers who had been tasked with keeping the air clear of smoke was the first to go down.

They had been moving in a spear point formation with the two clearing the air on the inside of the point, protected by all sides.

The shadow that Potter and Willis had seen and warned the men of had appeared a few more times during their mission. It was this shadow that caused all of the pandemonium to begin.

Harry had just turned around to check on the two clearing the air, and to also see if any Inferi or anything had managed to get behind the group. Sergeant Willis and the rest of the men were still facing the other direction when Harry saw it happen.

The shadow leapt from the ground, near a pile of rubble, and took a vaguely humanlike corporeal form. Still moving impossibly fast the now corporeal shadow form shot across the open street, unseen by all except Harry.

"Get down!" Harry shouted to the two soldiers who seemed to be right in the line of travel for the shadow, but his warning came too late.

The shadow had already reached one of the two men, Puck, if Harry remembered correctly.

As the shadow sped past Puck at first it appeared as if nothing had happened. That was until Puck fell to his knees and a crescent shaped red line appeared around his neck and began to ooze blood at an alarming rate.

Puck fell dead mere moments afterward, there was nothing anyone could do for him. As his body fell forwards the rest of the group had already turned, alerted by Harry's warning shout. They turned just in time to see the shadow speed off into an alley of rubble between two crumbled buildings.


	2. Chapter 2

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

"Down! Get the hell down!" Sergeant Willis was yelling to his men, even as Harry rushed forward.

Michael, the spell caster who had been working with Puck had dropped down to a crouched position, and was sweeping his wand back and forth, looking for the shadow that had killed Puck.

Harry rushed towards the downed wizard and grabbed him with his left hand, his rifle was still up and ready in his right.

Shouting to Michael, Harry relayed his orders, "Get back! Everyone back! Someone get in contact with Ozzy and Rex, and someone get in contact with Home Base. We might need some back up for this one."

Dragging Puck's lifeless body to the side, near where Sergeant Willis and some of his men had taken cover, under some rubble in one of the mostly still standing huts in the village, Harry paused. They could not see where the shadow was, or where it had gone, and that made the situation just that much more unpredictable.

"Potter, the hell is that thing? Vampire? Ghoul of some sort?" Sergeant Willis questioned Harry.

"I'm not sure, Sergeant. I didn't get a close enough look at it. I'd say vampire if I had to guess."

Raising his voice slightly Harry asked the next question to the whole group, "Has anyone made contact with Home Base? And what about Ozzy and Rex?"

One of the men answered, "Affirmative for Ozzy and Rex, they said they haven't seen anything unusual."

Another man spoke up, "Negative on Home Base, too much interference for any long range communication, sir."

Harry nodded, "Keep trying with Home Base, we must get something through."

Turning back to Sergeant Willis Harry asked, "Course of action, Sergeant? It seems the original mission has been completed, but now we have this new threat to deal with.

Sergeant Willis opened his mouth to answer, when they both heard a warning shout of, "There it is! Shadow at five o'clock!"

The entire group turned to face the shadow as one, each member aiming their rifle or wand and firing. Harry had already brought his rifle up to bear and was aiming down the sights, pumping shot after shot into where it seemed the dark figure would be.

Beside him Sergeant Willis and two other men were working their wands in rapid motions and patterns, sending spell after spell downrange. The sheer amount of spells and bullets proved unavoidable, and the shadow could be seen shuddering under the impact of various hits and spells. But none seemed to have a lasting affect on the shadow.

"Spread out, light spells or rifles now." Harry gave the order to Squad #3, if it was indeed a vampire or dark creature then light spells or rifles would be most effective in dealing with it.

Sergeant Willis barked out another order in his gruff voice, "Michael, ready the grenades, toss some out next time you see the thing."

The Shadow had now moved on, leaving nothing behind, no blood, no sign of damage or injury, nothing at all.

Harry and the men had quit firing their rifles and spells, and were once more waiting for the shadow to reappear.

"Update on reaching Home Base with the crystals?"

"Still negative, sir. We're not even getting static anymore. It's just dead, like it's out of magical charge. Every crystal we try is like that."

"What about Ozzy and Rex?" Just as Harry asked the sound of rapid gunfire came from above them, from the ridge where Ozzy and Rex were positioned.

Bright flashes of light and gunfire could be seen and heard from the ridge top.

"AHHHH…." A violent scream pierced the sky, but was cut short with a sickeningly loud and wet squelching noise.

All of the men were now on high alert, wands and rifles out, forming a circle in the middle of the rubble filled street. Every direction was covered, but the men were now nervous and rather antsy about continuing the mission.

"Try once more to reach Home Base, if we can't make contact then we will have to call it this time, and try to extract ourselves." Harry gave the order, even though it felt kind of odd for him to blatantly disregard the other Sergeant, Willis had been deferring to him for the entire mission, as was fitting. It was originally Harry's mission.

"Sergeant Willis, the brooms are up on the ridge, are they not?"

"They are, Sergeant Potter."

"Then we need to get the men up there, and fast. I have my broom with me. Someone needs to take it and leave immediately for Home Base. They need to know that something has gone wrong here."

"Are you not going to take it, Sergeant Potter?"

"No, I am going to see my mission to completion. You or one of your men must go, it is very important that they go and that they leave now."

"Russ, take the broom, you're the best and fastest flyer on the Squad. We need support and we need it now. It is imperative that you make it to Home Base, and as quickly as you can."

Harry handed the broom over to the soldier named Russ, who immediately ran and kicked off into the sky. Speeding high into the sky and then off into the distance Russ was quickly out of sight.

"We need to move, and eventually make it up to the ridge top. But right now we need a safe place to formulate a plan. Sergeant Potter, any ideas? You were briefed more extensively on the village and the surrounding area than my squad and I."

The group was still under only partial cover as they crouched and ducked behind rubble and fallen buildings. They were all still on high alert, and very cautious to anything in the otherwise empty village that seemed out of place.

"Yes. About two hundred yards north west from here there is an old mine shaft. That's the reason the village was here in the first place. We can take shelter in the mine while we plan our withdrawal."

"Sounds good, lead the way, Sergeant Potter."

Moving out as a group they carefully made their way through the village. Squad #3 had already lost three men, and a fourth had been sent to Home Base to get reinforcements and an extraction team. The nine man squad, counting Sergeant Willis, was now down to five men, also counting Sergeant Willis.

The group of soldiers came up to the rough wooden door that lead straight into the rocky cliff face.

Sergeant Willis gave orders, "Squad #3, group up into Entry Formation. Marx, you're on point."

"On 3…1…2…3…Go!"

On "3" Marx had launched a blasting spell at the lock on the door, and had pulled it wide open, the rest of the group followed in with Harry at the lead, wands and rifles raised.

Individual 'lumos' charms lit up the mineshaft.

"Oh sweet Merlin… OUT! Get out now! Go!" Harry yelled to the group, he was the first one in, and was the first one to see the utter carnage that was inside the mine.

Torches burned brightly in their wall brackets, providing plenty of light to see the macabre display.

Butchered bodies of the villagers laid splayed out in a gruesome pentagram, with candles burning low at each point and intersection. The rotting stench of death magic and necromancy hung thick in the air, but so did another smell. The vile and unique smell of Demonic taint, that Harry had only smelled on one occasion previously, during the disastrous Amazon mission.

"Willis, we need to get out of here. Now. That shadow is no vampire. It's a demon. Powerful too, much too powerful for us, based on the size of the Summoning Circle needed for it."

Sergeant Willis and the rest of the men looked shocked, they were not trained to deal with Demons, not at all. This could prove even deadlier than they had anticipated when they believed that it might be a vampire attacking them.

"_Incendio_" Harry had turned back towards the mineshaft, and raised his wand. The only way to deal with demonic taint like that was to cleanse it with fire. Which is exactly what Harry had achieved.

"Try once more to reach Home Base. You need to get back to Home Base immediately, understand, Sergeant Willis?"

"Understood. And what are you going to do, Potter?"

"I will do my best to make sure that the demon does not escape this valley, it might already be gone if it was up on the ridge top with Ozzy and Rex."

"After all, Sergeant Willis, the mission was to Secure and Contain, was it not? But now I'm ordering you and your men back to Home Base."

"I'm going to go to the East, where the only entrance or exit to the valley is. I'll be able to cut off the Demon from escaping from there. While I do that you are to lead your squad up the cliff and to the brooms, from there you are to go back to Home Base."

With that Harry took off at a run, his rifle in his right hand and wand in his left. He was in for the fight of his life, especially if he was left alone in the village with the demon.

Firing a few rounds into the air trying to grab the demon's attention, if it was even still in the area, Harry took a position of cover, and crouched down low. Waving his wand and doing a slight bit of Transfiguration on his rifle Harry concentrated on what he wanted to happen.

On the barrel of the rifle, near the magazine and muzzle two thin rings appeared.

Looking at his work with contentment Harry slid his wand into the two rings, it would allow him to use his rifle, and still fire some simpler spells from his wand, provided the wand motions were basic and easy to perform.

Harry was as ready as he could be to face the demon, and he moved carefully through the rest of the village, getting nearer to the gate on the east side, that lead to the sloping road up the valley. The gate was one of the few structures still standing, for the most part anyway.

Harry could see Squad #3 quickly traversing up the cliff face, being led by Sergeant Willis. They would reach the brooms soon and then be out of there. Leaving just Harry, the demon, and the fallen villagers and soldiers.


	3. Chapter 3

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Hope y'all like this story, I sure do. I don't have a very laid out plan for this story so it will sort of form itself as it goes.

"Demon. Ha! Why's it got to be a bloody demon? I hate the bloody things." Harry had stationed himself on the east side of what was left of the village, near the only exit. The demon would have no trouble exiting from a different way, it had already shown itself capable of climbing up the cliff face, as it had proven when it had gone and slaughtered Ozzy and Rex.

Still, being near the only exit made sense to Harry, he would have a much easier time running away if it came down to that, but he doubted that the demon would give him a chance to escape.

Harry had done an inventory on all of his gear, he had some basic concealment equipment, his rifle with plenty of ammunition, his wand which was still attached to his rifle, his sidearm which was a semiautomatic handgun with plenty of ammunition as well, his standard issue body armor, his silver knife, and three incendiary crystals which were essentially identical to muggle grenades, at least in function if not looks.

Harry was an experienced fighter, he had been with the I.M.T.F. for three years now, and before that he had taken down Voldemort. But for most of that he had had Ron and Hermione with him, which was not so anymore. He was all by himself, and he was facing a demon.

Sweeping the muzzle of his gun back and forth as he looked down the magical scope Harry muttered to himself, "Couldn't have been a Necromancer, or even a vampire. Would've bloody loved a vampire. Give it a big kiss, right in the fangs. But it had to be a demon. Sodding rotten luck."

Looking up to the ridge for a moment Harry could see Sergeant Willis and the survivors of Squad #3 departing on broomstick. They would bring even more reinforcements, if they didn't run into Russ and the reinforcements he was bringing along the way. If everything was going according to plan Harry estimated that he would only have to contain the demon by himself for about ten minutes, which was much easier said than done.

Seeing the last allies he had in the area leaving Harry turned back to survey the area in front of him once again. It would not do to let the demon sneak up on him, it could prove devastating and even fatal.

Staying on high alert Harry began a silent patrol, his boots crunching in the charred remains of the houses that once stood where he was walking. He had to be ready for anything at any moment.

Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw the corporeal form of the shadow move impossibly quick. It darted from one shadow to another, and no matter how fast Harry moved or reacted he could not get a reliable bead on the shadow to fire his rifle.

The shadow was getting closer, so Harry did the only thing he could. He began to squeeze the trigger of his rifle, doing his very best to anticipate the shadow's movements before it made them. It was difficult, but Harry could see the impact of the shells against the humanlike form.

Continuing to fire with his right hand Harry reached down to a pouch on his belt with his left hand. Opening the pouch and grabbing one of the three crystals inside Harry thumbed it active, like he had with the communication crystal not too much earlier.

The demon was closing in on Harry, it was now only about fifteen yards away. Harry tossed the activated incendiary crystal with his left hand, and brought his left hand back to his rifle to steady his shots.

Harry had judged perfectly, the crystal activated and exploded in precisely the spot that the demon had been moving to. With a high pitched, ear piercing screech the demon was consumed momentarily by the flames. Harry took a few steps back, and fired his rifle until the magazine clicked empty.

Turning and running down what was left of what was once an alleyway between two buildings Harry slipped a fresh magazine out of one of the pouches on the straps of his combat uniform. Slamming the new magazine home Harry continued to run, he needed to put some distance between himself and the demon, and the demon had probably learned its lesson about the incendiary crystals, which would complicate matters even more.

Pausing momentarily, and switching directions Harry glanced behind himself. He could no longer hear the raspy screech and scream of the demon, which meant that the demon had probably managed to put itself out by now.

Switching directions once more, Harry peeked out onto the main road of the village. He was no longer at the east gate, but about halfway through, near the middle of the village.

The demon was crouched near the east gate, and seemed to be slightly wounded. Poking his rifle out into the street Harry zeroed in his aim on the center mass of the demon.

Squeezing the trigger over and over again the loud sounds of gunshots echoed throughout the valley.

The demon shuddered with every impact, normally muggle weapons did not affect demons so much, but a demon was rather vulnerable directly after being Summoned into the physical realm. Now was the perfect time to eradicate this demon, as it would only be getting stronger over the next few days.

The demon turned to face Harry, and began to run as fast as it could towards him. The demon was about fifty yards away, but would soon close the distance.

"_Bombarda!_" The spell launched from Harry's wand, under his rifle, but was easily slapped aside as the demon approached. The slapped aside spell careened off course, and slammed into the charred remains of one of the houses.

Continuing to fire, once more with only his right hand Harry readied another incendiary crystal. Tossing the crystal towards the demon, now about thirty five yards away, but it met a similar fate at the _bombarda_ spell. It was slapped aside and lit a pile of rubble aflame.

Harry was running out of options, and ammunition. It seemed his supply was not as plentiful as he had thought, he was now on his last magazine, having taken the chance to reload as the demon paused to carefully bat the incendiary crystal away.

Squeezing the trigger and moving backwards carefully Harry paused for a moment and wandlessly vanished the two rings that were holding his wand in place. Holding his wand in his left hand, but also supporting the rifle with the same hand Harry resumed firing at the demon.

Little bits of shadow were coming off of the demon with every impact, but it seemed that the bullets were only slowing it down, and not doing very much permanent damage at all.

The rifle clicked empty, for good this time, and Harry immediately dropped it to the ground. It was of no use to him now, it would only weigh him down and take up space. The demon was only about fifteen yards away when Harry raised his pistol in his right hand and wand in his left.

Pumping every single shot from the pistol into the demon as rapidly as he could Harry dropped it as well when it clicked empty. Swiftly moving his wand to his right hand and drawing his silver knife with his left Harry turned and sprinted away as quickly as he could.

_"Bombarda! Bombarda Maxima! Protego!" _Harry launched a few more blasting spells towards the demon, and when they only slowed it down slightly, finished with a shield charm. The demon slammed full force into the shield, and was stopped in its tracks.

Taking the opportunity to attack Harry dispelled the shield charm, and leapt towards the demon, knife in hand. Lashing out with his right fist and making contact with the slightly shocked demon's face, Harry plunged his knife into where the belly would be on a human. It was hard to tell with this shadowy demon, demons took a shadowy form for the first few days after their Summoning, but after that took more solid, defined forms which were much more durable and powerful.

As the silver blade pierced the demons shadowy form a slight sizzling noise could be heard emanating from where the shadow was being burned by the purified silver. The demon screeched in pain once more, before bringing up its sharp, blade like hand and slashing towards Harry's face.

Jumping backwards to avoid the blow Harry narrowly missed having his head sliced clean off.

The demon sliced his other hand upwards, and Harry again narrowly dodged.

Once more Harry lashed out with his closed fist, it was too close quarters to use his wand effectively, and he had put it back in his holster for safe keeping. Feeling his fist make contact once more with the demon Harry again pressed the advantage. Slicing with his silver knife the demon dodged the brunt of the slash, but still caught the tip of the blade as it slid across its shadowy skin.

Screeching in pain the demon shot out its blade like fist inhumanly fast, too impossibly fast to block, and slammed it into Harry's stomach. Harry's standard issue armor took the brunt of the blow, but the edge of the blade like fist managed to puncture the skin, creating a good sized wound.

As blood leaked out of the wound Harry wondered where the hell his back up was. It had been nearly twenty five minutes since Sergeant Willis and Squad #3 had left, and Russ should have been there by now. But that mattered little to Harry, what did matter right now was completing the mission, to secure and contain the problem at the village. And to do that the demon had to die.

With his right hand applying pressure to the wound to hopefully minimize any blood loss, Harry reached his left hand into the pouch on his belt and felt out the last incendiary crystal.

Harry was now at an incredible disadvantage, his knife was fallen somewhere in the dirt, his rifle and pistol were empty and also in the dirt, his wand was in its holster, his right hand was occupied with tending to his wound, and his left hand was occupied in a last ditch attempt to save his life.

This left him somewhat of a sitting duck, and the weakened demon realized this. Both combatants were weary and injured, but right now the demon was pressing the attack.

Sweeping its right blade-fist towards Harry's face it seemed like it might be the fatal blow.

Leaning as far backwards as he could and turning his head, while still maintaining a decent combat stance Harry tried to avoid the blow. As much as he tried Harry could not avoid the entire slash, and the edge of the blade- fist slashed a deep gash horizontally across his cheek. Blood began to appear almost immediately, and then started to roll down Harry's cheek in a red wave of stinging pain.

By now Harry had thumbed the incendiary crystal active. Throwing his left fist out, clenched around the incendiary crystal Harry used all of his remaining strength to actually burst through the thin shadowy skin of the demon, and dropped the crystal. Pulling his hand out of the demon and releasing his stomach wound with his right hand Harry shoved the demon as hard as he could muster.

The shove sent the demon stumbling backwards, and with a flick of his wrist Harry's wand was in his hand. With a final "_Bombarda!_" spell, that the demon was unable to block this time, and the incendiary crystal activated from within the demon itself, lighting the inside of the demon on fire and burning it to a crisp.

As the demon shrieked a horrendous death scream that could no doubt be heard for miles around, Harry stumbled backwards until he felt his back hit one of the partially standing walls, and then kind of gently collapsed.

Moving his left hand to cover and maintain pressure on the wound in his stomach area Harry kept his wand held firmly in his right hand. He would be able to put up somewhat of a fight should something or someone come along, but he would be overpowered quite easily if it came down to it. Struggling to stay conscious and stay alert as well there was not much that Harry could do, except to wait for the reinforcements to arrive, they would undoubtedly have a medic with them.

Harry could attempt to heal himself, yes, he knew basic healing charms and spells, but he was so exhausted and his wound was just severe enough that he did not want to risk or take any chances, especially when medical professionals were supposed to be on the way.

"Bloody bastard demon. Bloody bloody bastard. Ha!" Harry muttered to himself.

The reinforcements were much overdue, and Harry had begun to wax and wane in and out off consciousness. He did not have any concept of time, it could have been minutes, hours, or even days. Harry would fall into unconsciousness and reawaken some time later, nearly unaware that he was even doing so. He was becoming slightly delirious due to blood loss, and the wound of his face and stomach stung in agonizing pain.

Harry had no way of knowing this, but it was six hours after the demon was finished off when the reinforcement squad arrived.

While Harry was unconscious the squad had touched down at the gate on the east side of the village, almost on the totally opposite end as Harry.

They had worked their way through the village much like Harry had done with Squad #3 hours earlier, and had been careful to stay on alert for any remaining Inferi, and also the demon that was possibly on the loose. Sergeant Willis and two of his men were with the squad that was looking for Harry, their mission was to find Harry and also eliminate the demon, if possible.

They combed through the ruined and desolate village effectively, and reached Harry in minutes. Sergeant Willis was the first to get to him.

"Medic! We need a medic! For the love of fucking Merlin get me a medic!"

The medical officer attached to the squad rushed forwards, already casting diagnostic charms and opening his med-pack. Harry weakly raised his head, and his wand arm with it. He was still ready to fight to the death should it be an enemy coming towards him.

Brief recognition flashed in Harry's eyes as he lost consciousness once more, this time Harry felt much safer than he had earlier. He was back with friendlies, and they would take him to safety.

"Medic, will he make it?"

The medic paused for a moment in his basic care and treatment of Harry and looked up to face Sergeant Willis, "I believe he will, sir."

From a few streets away one of the soldiers in the Recovery Squad shouted out, "Sergeant Blake, Sergeant Willis, I've found the demon."

Sergeant Blake was the sergeant in charge of the Recovery Squad, and he did his job well. They had been delayed a while by a freak, sudden sandstorm that they had been unable to spell or magic away. They had had to travel around the massive storm, which had taken quite a bit of time. He was a good man, and a good soldier as well.

Making eye contact with each other both Sergeant Blake and Sergeant Willis readied their wands and rushed off to find the soldier who had called out.

As they reached the soldier who had called out, a regular trooper named Markus, they were surprised. The demon had been incinerated, completely and totally incinerated. All that was left was a dried and charred husk of dark flesh.

"Merlin. Was it burned from the inside?" Sergeant Willis asked to Sergeant Blake.

"It appears so, holy hells, Potter outdid himself on this one, facing a demon in close combat, and somehow managing to burn it from the inside?"

"He sure did, seems like the mission is complete, Sergeant. We need to recover the fallen before we can leave, however. We must bring them back with us, as well as Harry."

Sergeant Blake nodded and began shouting orders to his own men to find the bodies of Puck, Ozzy, and Rex.

Before long all of the fallen were gathered nearby, and Harrys knife, rifle, and pistol had been gathered as well. Harry was somewhat in a stable condition, his life no longer was on the razor's edge between life and death, and the medic had given clearance to move him back to Home Base.

Packing everything and everyone up onto special transports that were linked between brooms the Recovery Squad and Sergeant Willis and his two men loaded up and took off, beginning the journey to go back to Home Base.


	4. Chapter 4

Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.

Hope y'all like this story.

Sergeant Harry James Potter of the Magical Combat Division of the International Magical Task Force was in searing, agonizing pain. During his fight with the demon he had been stabbed rather deeply in the gut, slashed across his cheek, and had broken a few bones.

He was currently at Home Base, that is to say he was at the I.M.T.F. compound in Afghanistan, where he had been deployed to track and take care of the renegade wizard. That had all gone down hill with the arrival of the demon, but now Harry had a new mission.

Harry had been in a magically induced healing coma for the past three days since his fight with the demon, and he had woken up just a few hours ago. He was still in horrible, blinding pain, most likely because he was probably not supposed to wake up for a few more days, so therefore he was probably not dosed on pain relief potions.

Struggling to move and sit up in the field hospital bed Harry painfully rose up. The crystals on the ceiling that illuminated the field hospital were blindingly bright. Wiping his eyes and slowly trying to get used to the light Harry looked around. A few of the other beds were occupied by soldiers that Harry either couldn't see or didn't recognize, most likely from other Divisions of the I.M.T.F.

Painfully stretching his muscles out and reaching down into his bag Harry began searching. Feeling out in his combat bag Harry found what he was looking for, a pack of cigarettes. It was a bad habit that he had picked up some time before, during a campaign against a clan of vampires in the forests of Albania. But that did not bother Harry, he was a soldier now and he was unworried about longterm health risks, and that was mainly irrelevant with the magical medical treatments, and the basic resistance it seemed wizards had against many health issues muggles faced.

Bringing the cigarette up to his mouth and also bringing up his other hand Harry looked around. Harry was certain that any of the medical officers would not allow him to smoke inside the field hospital, but Harry did not really care.

With his free hand Harry snapped his fingers and a small flame appeared, one that he then used to light the end of his cigarette. Inhaling the smoke from the cigarette Harry took a deep drag. The tobacco and nicotine would relax him, and possibly take the slightest edge off of the pain he was feeling.

Leaning back into his hospital bed Harry relaxed as much as he could with the pain he was feeling, and continued to smoke his cigarette.

A few minutes later the door at the end of the ward where Harry was currently in opened up. Harry turned to see what or who was entering, and was greeted by the sight of two of the healers wearing white healer's robes, and three other figures dressed in completely black robes that were more formal than what Harry was accustomed to seeing around Home Base. The three other figures must be from some other division in the I.M.T.F., Harry decided.

As the two healers recognized that Harry was sitting up and was conscious they both hurried their pace, and reached Harry in moments.

"Sergeant Potter you know that you can't do that in here." Snatching the half burnt cigarette and ashing it onto the table next to Harry's hospital bed the healer began his examination of Harry.

Casting diagnostic and examination spells on Harry to determine his status both of the healers peppered Harry with questions as to what hurt and how badly.

"Here, take this potion now, and when it wears off and whenever the pain returns take a single sip from this vial. A single sip, Sergeant."

Drinking the entire potion that was handed to him, and watching the healer place another potion on the bedside table Harry responded, "Understood, a single sip when the pain returns. Got it."

"Good. Also no more smoking, not inside. and seeing as you aren't fit to move or go outside then it looks like no more smoking for a while, Sergeant Potter."

The second healer had not spoken at all yet, and had simply been filling out various charts and pieces of parchment with information on Harry, his injuries, and his progress healing.

"How long was I out for?"

"Three days, we had to put you in a magically induced coma directly after the procedure to close up the wound in your stomach."

The three figures in the black robes approached the bed now, they had purposely taken their time to let the healers tend to Harry. Harry could not see that it was two men and a woman, and inside each one of them Harry could sense huge amounts of magical strength and power. Harry did not recognize any of the three individuals, they did have the symbol of the I.M.T.F. stitched onto the left side of their robes. So that meant that they were just from a different division, but from the symbol stitched onto the right side of their robes Harry could not identify which division.

The symbol was a flaming sword and wand with white lightning crackling around it, all overlaid over a kite shield background. Harry did not recognize it, but the I.M.T.F. had many different divisions, and some of them were more covert operations based than others.

Those two symbols, the division and I.M.T.F. were the only markings on any of their robes.

As they approached, all three in a row, the woman spoke first.

"Sergeant Harry James Potter, of the Magical Combat Division, formerly of Squad #6?"

It still sent a pang of pain through Harry to even hear his old squad mentioned. "Yes ma'am. And you are?"

"Agent Sayer. To my left is Agent Grout, and to my right is Agent Carson. We are from the Elite Containment Division."

Harry had only heard stories and rumors of the Elite Divisions. They were said to be the most powerful and hardcore of all of the Divisions, and were usually only deployed or utilized during international crises that could potentially threaten the stability or even continued existence of the world.

"Elite Division? How can I help, ma'am?" Harry did not know if the "agents" of the Elite Containment Division outranked him, but it was safe to assume that they did, considering that they were after all part of one of the Elite Divisions.

The tall, black haired Agent Sayer responded, "We received word of the demon that was summoned, and the, ah, rather remarkable way that it was dispatched of. We would like to hear your account, and when you are able we wish to visit the village where it took place." Beside Agent Sayer both Agent Grout and Carson nodded in agreement.

This whole thing was becoming rather odd, but after a moment of thought Harry decided that it was just his luck pulling through in it's usual fashion. Harry was sure that whatever new chapter in his life that was being opened by this Agent Sayer would no doubt be entertaining to say the least. Harry had a feeling that the three members of the Elite Containment Division were here for something else, something they weren't quite revealing just yet.

The two healers had left Harry and the three Agents a few minutes earlier, about when the Agents started speaking with Harry.

Looking around and noticing that the healers had indeed left Harry rummaged through his bag once more, searching for another cigarette. Retrieving one from the pack he held it up and offered the three Agents, who all declined.

Shrugging and bringing the cigarette up to his mouth, and also bringing his other hand up as he had earlier he lit the new cigarette.

Leaning back into the pillow as he had been earlier Harry made a request, "Agent Sayer, would you mind casting an odor dispelling ward for me, I seem to be a bit, ah, drained at the moment?"

Smirking slightly as she obliged Harry and pulled out her wand she seemed vaguely amused. The other two Agents seemed to not care at all, they all knew that smoking was a very common habit in the I.M.T.F., especially among the Divisions that regularly saw combat or action of some sort.

Taking a drag from the cigarette Harry spoke again, "When I'm done with this we can go to the village."

The three Agents all shared a look, they all knew that Harry was in no state to move around, especially over any distance. But they would not stop or restrain Harry from doing so, if he thought he was able.

A few minutes passed as Harry smoked and stretched his muscles in preparation for what he was sure would be a very very painful excursion. He knew it would be painful and was not the brightest idea, but Harry could not stand to be cooped up in the hospital, helpless as he was.

Checking his equipment bag and his ammunition, which had been replenished while he healed, Harry decided that he was as ready as he would ever be. Grabbing the potion on the table that he was supposed to take whenever the pain returned Harry took a pre-emptive swig and placed the vial in a pocket.

Feeling the pain relief potion kick in Harry rose himself up, and swung his legs to the side of the bed, hanging them down towards the ground. Grabbing onto the bed for support as he lifted his equipment bag and rifle and slung them both over his back Harry grimaced in pain. It would certainly be very tough to make it through, but Harry was already committed to doing his best to see it through.

Taking the first few steps Harry addressed the three Agents, "This way, we will need some brooms if we are going to the village."

Leading the small group to the broom storage area of Home Base Harry retrieved three standard issue brooms for the Agents to use, and then went on to the barracks. Entering the barracks, and retrieving his own broom they were then ready to set off.

Taking off from behind the barracks building the group set off in the direction of the village. Kicking off and rising high into the sky each person activated the basic cloaking and concealment charms and runes that were in every I.M.T.F. standard issue broom, it would allow them to fly relatively low and fast, without much fear of detection by muggles.

Harry was still in extreme pain, though there was not much he could do about it. He had decided by himself that he would show the three Agents the village. Harry had assumed, correctly, that the sooner they could investigate the Summoning Circle the more information they could glean from it.

The Circle was already probably very damaged, with Harry having fired his _incendio_ spell into the middle of it, but no one had really checked it or investigated it thoroughly. And that was exactly what the primary objective of the three Agents was, to investigate the Summoning Circle, although the team did have some other objectives that they intended to see through.

They were about halfway there when Harry slowed the pace somewhat. Shortening the gap between himself and the three Agents following him Harry began to describe the village, his original mission, and everything that had gone wrong during the mission.

Harry was nearing the part of the tale when he sent off Sergeant Willis and the survivors of Squad #3 and took the demon on by himself. Agent Sayer seemed intrigued by this part, it seemed they had only received the barest of briefings before being deployed out to investigate here.

"So you took the demon on solo? Could you tell when the demon had been summoned?" Agent Sayer asked, the other two Agents had been remarkably quiet, silent actually. It rather unnerved Harry, just a bit.

"Yes, I took the demon on by myself. It had recently been summoned, within a day or so of the encounter, I'd say."

This seemed to intrigue Agent Sayer even further, which slightly amused Harry. If she was so interested at this point in the story she would be downright amazed at the ending.

"How did you manage to kill the demon by yourself? We haven't seen the corpse or heard the story yet, the only thing that we have heard was that it was a spectacular story."

"Incendiary crystal. Embedded and then activated inside the stomach area of the demon."

All three of the Agents faltered in their flight, and Agent Grout gave a somewhat choked and surprised cough.

"Embedded and activated? You shoved the incendiary crystal into the stomach of the demon and burned it from the inside out?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Astounding. And the demon had already been in this plane for about a day, as far as you could tell?"

"Yes ma'am."

Agent Sayer let out a low whistle, it seemed that she was quite impressed with Harry's unique method of demon disposal. She shared a brief look with the other two Agents, and nodded towards them both. Both Agent Carson and Agent Grout seemed happy after that quick interaction, almost borderline giddy even.

They were now nearing the burned out village where everything had taken place, and the group of four were about to touch down.

Lowering down at the east gate where Harry had first taken up on the defensive against the demon.

"This gate is where I first took it on by myself. I used my rifle until I ran out of ammunition, and then my pistol and wand. After I had used all of the pistol ammunition I used my knife and wand, and eventually just used the knife and last incendiary crystal that I had left."

Pausing and leaning up against a pile of rubble Harry took in a raggedy breath. The pain was returning in waves, all along his gut and across his cheek. He had nearly forgotten about the wound to his cheek, it had all scarred up. The wound had left a thick rope of pink scar tissue that would fade slightly over time, but because the wound was caused by a demon the scar would be there for the rest of Harry's life. The same was true with the wound to Harry's gut.

Pulling out the vial of strong pain relief potion Harry took a good swig from it, and then corked the vial and put it back into his pocket. He was doing his best to abide by the healer's 'single sip' rule, and so far it was not too hard.

Continuing to show the three Agents through the small town, and going over his battle with the demon step by step Harry and the group made their way to the mineshaft, where the wooden door that led into the rock was still hastily shut. The edges of the door looked charred, which was a good sign that the fire that Harry had cast had done its job in purifying and cleansing the demonic taint that was no doubt left behind from the summoning of the demon.

"Just through this door is where the Summoning Circle was. I didn't get a very clear or in depth look at it, once I recognized it for what it was I left the mineshaft and tossed an _incendio_ spell behind me, to try and clean up the circle and any remnant of demonic taint."

For the first time one of the other two Agents spoke, it was Agent Grout, Harry believed, "You know of the taint?"

"Yes sir, I have encountered it before, once. On a mission in the Amazon rainforest. I lost my entire squad, I was one of six survivors in the whole 3rd Platoon."

For the briefest of moments it seemed like recognition fluttered in Agent Grout's eyes, almost as if he had heard of or somehow knew of the Amazon mission that went so disastrously wrong. The mission and its losses were not strictly 'secret', but the men of 3rd Platoon, which was the Platoon Harry was currently attached to, did not like speaking of what had cut their numbers down to just six soldiers.

Harry and five others of 3rd Platoon had come out of the Amazonian rainforest, after the entire platoon had been deployed. It had been a three month long campaign, but specific missions during the campaign had also gone spectacularly wrong, with disastrous consequences for the platoon as a whole.

The three Agents drew their wands, as did Harry, and Agent Sayer opened the door to the mineshaft.


End file.
